Hours at an average pace
Showing 75 books
About 366 hours for 75 of 75 books with measured lengths. Estimates use 250 words a minute, adjusted for each book's difficulty. At 2 hours a day, about 184 days for those books.
Nobel laureate and one of the most important poets of the twentieth century. Central to Polish literature and increasingly recognized in world poetry.
Nobel laureate and the defining poet of the Anglophone Caribbean. Central to postcolonial literature and increasingly recognized in the broader English-language canon.
Foundational text of Chicana feminism, border studies, and queer theory. Universally taught in relevant fields.
Taught in graduate poetry programs and comparative literature courses at major universities, 'A Part of Speech' is the collection through which Brodsky entered the Western canon. It appears in virtually every major anthology of 20th-century exile and émigré poetry. Not a fixture in broad undergraduate syllabi, but essential in advanced poetry and diaspora literature courses.
Persepolis is one of the most widely taught graphic narratives in schools and universities, a standard text in courses on memoir, comics and the modern Middle East. It sits beside Art Spiegelman's Maus at the core of the graphic-memoir curriculum.
Foundational text of Palestinian literature. Widely taught and translated.
No. 7 on this list. Return to Haifa
Ghassan Kanafani · 1969
Easy1.4 hours
Taught in schools: Moroccan secondary Arabic literature (Morocco)
One of the foundational texts of Palestinian literature and one of the most widely read Arabic novellas worldwide.
"The Truce" is taught widely in Holocaust literature, Italian literature, and 20th-century European history courses at universities across Europe and North America. It is less universally assigned than "If This Is a Man" but is firmly in the canon of serious literary and testimonial writing. No syllabus data was returned by the database, but Levi's standing in academic curricula is well established independently.
Count Julian (Reivindicación del conde don Julián, 1970), the middle novel of the trilogy begun with Marks of Identity, is a standard text in courses on the post-war Spanish novel. Banned in Franco's Spain, it is read in English in Helen Lane's translation.
One of the most historically significant American novels. Universally taught in American history and literature courses.
No. 11 on this list. Drown · Junot Diaz · 1996
Widely taught in creative writing programs and contemporary fiction courses. A touchstone debut collection of the 1990s.
Easy2.7 hours
Start this bookNo. 12 on this list. Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories · Sandra Cisneros · 1991
Widely taught alongside The House on Mango Street. A touchstone of Chicana literature and a landmark of American short fiction.
Easy3.6 hours
Start this bookNo. 13 on this list. Binti · Nnedi Okofor · 2015
Hugo and Nebula Award winner. A significant work of Africanfuturist fiction, increasingly taught in university courses.
Very Easy1.2 hours
Start this bookNo. 14 on this list. The Wind from the Plain · Yasar Kemal · 1960
Well-regarded within Turkish literature and among specialists, but less widely known internationally than Memed, My Hawk.
Very Easy2.6 hours
Start this bookNo. 15 on this list. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents · Julia Alvarez · 1991
How the García Girls Lost Their Accents is regularly assigned in American high schools and in college courses on Latino and immigrant literature. With Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street, it is one of the most taught works of Latina fiction.
Very Easy3.6 hours
Start this bookNo. 16 on this list. A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain · Robert Olen Butler · 1993
The Vietnam War continues to play itself out in fiction, autobiography, and history books, but no American author has captured the experiences of the Vietnamese themselves--and caught their voices--more tellingly than Robert Olen Butler, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain. The 15 stories collected here, all written in the first person, blend Vietnamese folklore, the terrible, lingering memories of war, American pop culture and family drama.
Moderate4.3 hours
Start this bookNo. 17 on this list. Voyage in the Dark · Jean Rhys · 1934
Recognized as one of Rhys's most important novels, central to discussions of colonial and postcolonial women's writing. Less famous than Wide Sargasso Sea but critically valued.
Easy2.5 hours
Start this bookNo. 18 on this list. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian · Marina Lewycka · 2005
"An amusing, astonishing debut . . . about how a family learns to let go of the past and live and love in the present." —The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionWith this wise, tender, and deeply funny novel, Marina Lewycka takes her place alongside Zadie Smith and Monica Ali as a writer who can capture the unchanging verities of family. When an elderly and newly widowed Ukrainian immigrant announces his intention to remarry, his daughters must set aside their longtime feud to thwart him. For their father's intended is a voluptuous old-country gold digger with a proclivity for green satin underwear and an appetite for the good life of the West. As the hostilities mount and family secrets spill out, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian combines sex, bitchiness, wit, and genuine warmth in its celebration of the pleasure of growing old disgracefully.
Moderate4.8 hours
Start this bookNo. 19 on this list. The Dutch House · Ann Patchett · 2019
Pulitzer finalist, read in book clubs and some courses. Patchett's reputation ensures attention, but the book is recent enough that canonical status is TBD.
Moderate6.1 hours
Start this bookNo. 20 on this list. Pelle the Conqueror · Martin Andersen Nexø · 1910
Canonical within Scandinavian literature and the global tradition of working-class fiction, where it stands alongside Gorky's The Lower Depths and Zola's Germinal. Less taught in English-language curricula than those Continental peers, but routinely included in world literature courses on realism and labor writing. No syllabus data was available in the database for this work.
Easy25 hours
Start this book
No. 21 on this list. Clap When You Land · Elizabeth Acevedo · 2020
A major YA verse novel from a National Book Award winner. Already widely taught and discussed as a significant work of Dominican American literature.
Very Easy1.2 hours
Start this bookNo. 22 on this list. Honey in the Horn · H.L. Davis · 1936
The novel won the 1936 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and remains in print through Oregon State University Press's Northwest Reprints series, securing its place in regional American literature. It appears regularly in discussions of Western fiction and Pacific Northwest writing, though it lacks the broad recognition of other 1930s Pulitzers like The Grapes of Wrath. Academic attention focuses primarily on regional specialists rather than mainstream literary scholarship.
Moderate9.9 hours
Start this bookNo. 23 on this list. Afterlives · Abdulrazak Gurnah · 2020
Ilyas, an Arab boy, is abducted by German colonial soldiers and raised in Germany; decades later, his brother Hamza survives WWI fighting for the Germans in East Africa. Returning to Zanzibar, their fates intertwine with those of women navigating colonialism, independence, and their own desires. Gurnah's sweeping novel spans continents and decades, exploring displacement, memory, and the long aftermath of empire.
Moderate5.4 hours
Start this bookNo. 24 on this list. Magician: Apprentice · Raymond E. Feist · 1982
A staple of 1980s-90s fantasy. The Riftwar Saga is widely read and fondly remembered.
Easy7.1 hours
Start this bookNo. 25 on this list. Strange Pilgrims · Gabriel García Márquez · 1992
A respected collection from a Nobel laureate, though not among his most celebrated works.
Moderate3.4 hours
Start this bookNo. 26 on this list. Never Come Morning · Nelson Algren · 1942
Algren's second novel, less well-known than The Man with the Golden Arm but respected by scholars of American naturalism and Chicago literature.
Easy3.5 hours
Start this bookNo. 27 on this list. Caramelo · Sandra Cisneros · 2002
Taught in Latino literature courses and recognized as Cisneros's most ambitious novel, though less universally assigned than The House on Mango Street.
Easy8.8 hours
Start this bookNo. 28 on this list. Real Estate · Deborah Levy · 2021
The Living Autobiography trilogy is increasingly regarded as a significant contribution to contemporary life-writing and feminist literature.
Easy2.6 hours
Start this bookNo. 29 on this list. Redburn · Herman Melville · 1849
A readable, underrated Melville novel, studied by scholars but rarely taught outside specialized courses.
Easy5 hours
Read nowNo. 30 on this list. Flight Behavior · Barbara Kingsolver · 2012
Major Kingsolver novel. Widely taught in environmental literature courses.
Easy6.1 hours
Start this book
No. 31 on this list. Brooklyn
Colm Tóibín · 2009
No. 32 on this list. Brick Lane
Monica Ali · 2003
No. 33 on this list. All This Could Be Different
Sarah Thankam Mathews · 2023
No. 34 on this list. The Kitchen God's Wife
Amy Tan · 1991
No. 35 on this list. The Bride Test
Helen Hoang · 2019
No. 36 on this list. In the Country of Others
Leïla Slimani · 2020
No. 37 on this list. Nine Princes in Amber
Roger Zelazny · 1970
No. 38 on this list. Refugee
Alan Gratz · 2017
No. 39 on this list. Me Talk Pretty One Day
David Sedaris · 2000
No. 40 on this list. A Kindness to the Children
Joan Riley · 1997
No. 41 on this list. A Guardian and a Thief
Megha Majumdar · 2025
No. 42 on this list. Behold the Dreamers
Imbolo Mbue · 2017
No. 43 on this list. Palaver
Bryan Washington · 2025
No. 44 on this list. The Stone Face
William Gardner Smith · 1975
No. 45 on this list. The Long Dream
Richard Wright · 1958
No. 46 on this list. Faceless Killers
Henning Mankell · 1991
No. 47 on this list. Exiles
James Joyce · 1918
No. 48 on this list. A Memory Called Empire
Arkady Martine · 2019
No. 49 on this list. Clear
No. 50 on this list. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
Becky Chambers · 2014
No. 51 on this list. Dominicana
Angie Cruz · 2020
No. 52 on this list. The Road to Wanting
Wendy Law-Yone · 2011
No. 53 on this list. American Hagwon
Min Jin Lee · 2026
No. 54 on this list. The Bat
Jo Nesbø · 1997
No. 55 on this list. Afterparties
Anthony Veasna So · 2021
No. 56 on this list. Binocular Vision
Edith Pearlman · 2011
No. 57 on this list. The Orange Grove
Larry Tremblay · 2015
No. 58 on this list. American Dirt
Jeanine Cummins · 2020
No. 59 on this list. Reef
Romesh Gunesekera · 1994
No. 60 on this list. The End We Start From
Megan Hunter · 2017
No. 61 on this list. A Woman Is No Man
Etaf Rum · 2019
No. 62 on this list. Pashmina
Nidhi Chanani · 2017
No. 63 on this list. Highwire Moon
Susan Straight · 2001
No. 64 on this list. Thomas the Rhymer
Ellen Kushner · 1990
No. 65 on this list. The Seers
Sulaiman Addonia · 2024
No. 66 on this list. Rivage de la Colère
Caroline Laurent · 2020
No. 67 on this list. Crazy Rich Asians
Kevin Kwan · 2013
No. 68 on this list. Shantaram
Gregory David Roberts · 2004
No. 69 on this list. The Four Winds
Kristin Hannah · 2021
No. 70 on this list. Paradise Travel
Jorge Franco · 2017
No. 71 on this list. No God But Us
Bobuq Sayed · 2026
No. 72 on this list. The Ministry of Time
Kaliane Bradley · 2024
No. 73 on this list. The Others
Sheena Kalayil · 2025
No. 74 on this list. Maria, Maria & Other Stories
Marytza K. Rubio · 2022
No. 75 on this list. Until You Find the Sun: A Story About Discovering Home Wherever You Go
Maryam Hassan · 2024
About this list
These 75 books are the highest-scoring eligible easy books about exile and displacement currently in the catalogue. About 366 hours of reading in all. Difficulty runs from 29 to 41 out of 100 for the middle half of the list; the summit is Collected Poems of Derek Walcott at 45.
This list is ranked by literary regard, with a consistent order for equal scores. Membership follows authors and co-authors, not translators or editors. A book is here when ReadingRate files it under Exile & Displacement as one of its primary reading domains, at a confidence of 0.8 or more. Catalogue coverage and the historical canon both limit what this list can represent.
When we matched the Canons dataset to our catalogue in October 2026, our canonical-status scores rose with the number of school curricula, publisher series and lists in it that cite a work: the median score was 72 for books one such source cites, 84 at two, 88 at three, 92 at four and 93 at five or more. Prizes are left out of that count. Outside the state curricula, the dataset’s sources choose mostly from what has been translated into English or French, so it is a weaker check on other literatures. Source: Canons (Andrew Piper), CC BY 4.0
Questions people actually ask
- What are the best easy books about exile and displacement?
- By literary regard, which weighs canonical status, critical standing and influence: Selected Poems of Czesław Miłosz by Czesław Miłosz, Collected Poems of Derek Walcott by Derek Walcott, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldua, A Part of Speech by Joseph Brodsky and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. ReadingRate ranks 75 such books, each with a difficulty score and a reading-time estimate.
- Which easy books about exile and displacement should I read first?
- Start from difficulty, not from rank. The most approachable books on this list that still carry top literary regard are Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (about 2.2 hours), Men in the Sun by Ghassan Kanafani and Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldua.
- What are the shortest of the best easy books about exile and displacement?
- Among the top 25, the shortest are A Part of Speech by Joseph Brodsky (about 17 min), Men in the Sun by Ghassan Kanafani (about 1.4 hours) and Return to Haifa by Ghassan Kanafani (about 1.4 hours), at an average pace of 250 words a minute adjusted for each book's difficulty.
- Which of the best easy books about exile and displacement are the established classics?
- By canonical status, how firmly a book sits in curricula, anthologies and the canon: Selected Poems of Czesław Miłosz by Czesław Miłosz, Collected Poems of Derek Walcott by Derek Walcott, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldua and Men in the Sun by Ghassan Kanafani.
- Can I read any of these easy books about exile and displacement for free?
- 2 of the 75 open in ReadingRate's reader with a free account, from public-domain editions: Redburn and Exiles.
- How long would it take to read the top ten?
- About 34 hours, at an average pace of 250 words a minute adjusted for each book's difficulty: 17 days at two hours a day. Set your own pace on the page and the list's reading times change to it.
- How hard are easy books about exile and displacement to read?
- Most of this list sits between 29 and 41 on ReadingRate's 100-point difficulty scale, where 40 to 55 is moderate. The summit is Collected Poems of Derek Walcott at 45. Every entry carries its own score, so a reader can pick a great book at a difficulty they will finish.
- How is this list ranked?
- On literary-regard data: how canonically established a work is, its critical standing, and its influence on later writing. It is not a readers’ poll, which is why recent bestsellers rarely appear. Membership follows authors and co-authors, not translators or editors. Lists by country, author, period, theme or difficulty keep to literature (fiction, poetry, drama and philosophy), their novels, poems and plays first and their philosophy after them; a list of a kind of book, such as memoir or criticism, keeps every book of that kind. Every list holds at most three works by one author. A book is here when ReadingRate files it under Exile & Displacement as one of its primary reading domains, at a confidence of 0.8 or more.